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Gen Zer Ranks Sister's Instagram—Result Is Brutal: 'Undeniably Millennial'
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A Generation Zer has gone viral after rating his sister's "undeniably millennial" Instagram stories, and he didn't hold back.
As an 18-year-old, Nate Gilbert is firmly in the Gen Z category (people who were born between 1997 and 2012), but the same can't be said for his sister, Katie Walker. Aged 24, she is also Gen Z, but Gilbert told Newsweek that her "way of posting aligns much more with millennials."
The siblings have a running joke about her online content seeming more like that of millennials, who were born between 1981 and 1996. Walker recently saw a video of two girls rating their millennial sister's posts, and couldn't resist asking Gilbert, of Seattle, Washington, to do the same.
Needless to say, he was more than happy to oblige.
"There's a story that she posted of her feet in the sand with the simple caption ' … I hate sand'. This is the literal epitome of a millennial post," Gilbert said.
Nate Gilbert, 18, ranks his sister's Instagram stories.
Nate Gilbert, 18, ranks his sister's Instagram stories.
@nate_g727 / TikTok
He continued: "Caption aside, many commenters agreed that the picture itself was undeniably millennial. I don't think you would ever catch someone on the younger side of Gen Z posting pictures of their toes in the sand unironically, but here she was, doing exactly that."
What makes Walker's social-media presence so millennial is the sheer number of posts, Gilbert said. He added that she loves to post about everything from her breakfast to the weather, which her younger brother thinks is a common trait among millennials.
While Gen Z tend to be more performative on social media and use it as a way of curating a brand, Gilbert said he thinks millennials just use it to "post their inner thoughts for all to see."
"I've been openly critical of the way Gen Z uses social media, since it's all very artificial and fake. However, this does not mean that I will stop poking fun at the way millennials post," he said.
Gilbert shared his ratings in a TikTok video (@nate_g727) which has since gone viral with over 874,000 views and more than 74,100 likes in a matter of days. The scoring system he used was a 1 for "too millennial, don't post that," up to 10 being more like a Gen Z post.
Among his ratings, Gilbert showed an Instagram story of a dog that was captioned "smiley boy." He gave that a three out of 10 because it was "pretty millennial" but wasn't the worst. A photo of a plane window was deemed even more millennial and got just two of out 10 because of the stickers and emoji.
Gilbert said that his sister wasn't surprised by his criticism, as she knew he "wouldn't hold back."
The online response to the TikTok video is beyond anything Gilbert expected, with many millennials feeling personally victimized by his critique.
Gilbert told Newsweek: "I got hundreds of comments about how my generation is miserable, even though I somewhat agree. Some people went as far as to come at me personally, commenting about how emotionless I sound. On the other hand, there were some millennials who were able to laugh at themselves and left positive comments."
The video wasn't meant with malice, but rather just to offer a fun perspective. Gilbert certainly doesn't hate millennials; he just wanted to analyze the different ways they use social media to Gen Z.
"I'm sure that, in 10 years' time, Gen Alpha will take our place and begin making fun of our generation. And I'm excited to watch what they come up with," Gilbert said.
With over 2,300 comments on the clip so far, many TikTok users were quick to share their thoughts.
One comment reads: "Gen Z is literally obsessed with us."
Another TikTok user wrote: "all the millennials mad in the comments is killing me."
A third person replied: "The fact Gen Z isn't using stickers is devastating news to me."
One commenter added: "As a millennial, her stories speak to me."
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